Designing food packaging to be accessible to all consumers in an ageing population

Transcription

1 Designing food packaging to be accessible to all consumers in an ageing population Presentation at Food Matters Live 21 st November 2018 Sarah Chapman

2 Agenda What issues do older consumers have with packaging consumer survey Observational interviews Reading the label Opening packs Conclusions

3 Aim of the consumer study To determine opportunities for product innovation & packaging improvement in a subset of the ageing population (aged 50-80). Objectives of the consumer study To categorise the health concerns as self-reported by an ageing population To identify opportunities for product innovation through fortification and improvement to packaging design. To understand challenges with regard to shopping for groceries.

4 Consumer Survey - summary 450 respondents Age 50 to 80 with 1 third in each 10 year age group 52/48% Male/Female split Across UK 58% retired, 25% employed full time All respondents were living independently Questions on Health concerns Health benefit products they do or would buy Ingredients that respondents should consume more or less of Shopping experience and pack openability

5 For each packaging type, please indicate whether you find it easy/difficult/neither easy or difficult to open Large (1litre+) screw cap bottles Small (less than 1 litre) screw cap bottles Glass jars Foil pouches Food cans with ring pulls Beverage cans with ring pulls Pots with hard plastic clip on lids Pots or trays with film lids Tearable packets and sachets Carton packs with small foil seals Small carton packs with end corners folded that require lifting and cutting Breaking the cellophane safety seal between the lids and base of pots Vacuum packed products

6 Openability of different types of packaging

7 50 Forms of packaging found difficult to open - by gender (% of respondents) Male Female 0 Ageing females found opening packaging formats more difficult than their males counterparts

8 Openability of packaging Opening packaging requires strength and for some formats both strength & dexterity More torque required to open jars of 85mm diameter than 55 mm diameter A study by Yoxall (2006) showed that at age 75, the mean strength for females dropped below the mean jar opening torque, unable to open 50% of the jars they buy Consideration of inclusive design around improving an individual s grip in order to enhance the strength of grip when opening packaging would be helpful

9 Observational interviews To understand readability of information on a package Openability of ready meal trays Challenges faced with opening different types of packaging

10 Participants Recruitment criteria Age years old Suffer from eye deterioration Were involved in the purchase of foods Were involved in the preparation and cooking of foods All participants suffered from eye deterioration 5 had arthritis 4 had hearing loss 3 had bad back

11 Test samples Sampl e No. Sample type 1 Standard font in sentences 2 Standard font in table format 3 Enlarged font in sentences 4 Enlarged font in table format

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13 Comments on the standard cans The white and black is good because it (background and text) isn t always clear The bolding makes it quite easy to see the instructions Much more challenging being in a sentence Well that s a lot of print I don t like it, it s a page from a cookery book It wouldn t be easy to pin point a place to go back to once you got to the end Well its quite small I m having to concentrate hard to read it

14 Comments on cans with enlarged print This is straight to the point this is really straight forward, it s telling me exactly what I need to do Yeah even though my eye sight is not so good it is still easy to read Oh my goodness me that s much too large I need to move the tin around rather than just look at it you think, what line was I on? All of these directions are slightly complicated and I find I have to read it twice and then check again I don t like the block colouring in I prefer just the black and white it would be better in a black and white table

15 Ranking of ease of reading and understand Preferred sentences to the table format sentences too long and complex Larger font enabled information to be read and understood more easily rotation required to read info 5 Positions of Ranking st 2nd 3rd 4th

16 Ease of opening ready meal trays Sample No. Sample type 1 Control without a tab 2 Reduced sealing temperature without a tab 3 Reduced sealing temperature with large tab 4 Reduced sealing temperature with small tab

17 Opening ready meal with no tab Once I d found a weak spot it was quite easy Once I d got into it it s easy Once I found an edge it pulled of reasonably well it wasn t too strong For a start it is difficult to know where to open it it s confusing where to open it I can t find the tab there s barely any tab on this one I would need to use a sharp knife to pierce and go around the outside I m disappointed, because I can t find a tab

18 Opening ready meal with tab The tabs are useful they are important I m able to find the corner on that and it has come off easily in one piece The larger tab is a good thing because I struggle with normal tabs to pull them off" I would say that the seal was slightly harder on that I had to give it a bit of a tug at the end, if it had been really hot it might have been a problem

19 Challenging packs to open

20 Conclusions